**Edited**

[#1]

Hi everyone,

I did a project for**Edited for Community Guidelines**where I had to record 54 audios showcasing specific emotions. I sibmitted the work on 10 December 2023. They were accepted but the client said that they needed to be accepted by her client as well. I did not get any feedback until 5 days ago when I was told they were all rejected. The reason was "acoustics". I was asked to revise and resubmit which I have not been able to do as the above reason for rejection is vague. I also listened to the audios multiple times and found no issues - no background noise, no quality issue. This is something I specifically ensured as this was in the rules. I also have to mention that the job was extremely time consuming. I am shocked that I cannot be paid for it despite all the time and effort. 

[#2]

Hi Thabisa,

Thank you for reaching out to us. For Fixed-Price jobs, freelancers are advised to use the submit work link next to the funded milestone on the contract details page to share work with their clients and, at the exact moment, request payment. Once you submit work and request payment, the client will have 14 days to review it and approve or ask for changes. If they take no action in 14 days, the funds in Escrow will be released to you.

You may read more about Fixed-Price Protection here. Additionally, you may want to check this page for more information about disputing a non-release of a milestone payment. 

[#3]

The client is a scammer, thief, fraud, criminal, and a nasty person. It isn't a matter of how to submit.

The problem is that this and other known scams are not removed from the job feed.

I realize moderators are limited in how they can respond and what they can say. So, tell your management that these copy-paste posts are not helpful when they ignore the problem and insult the freelancer's intelligence. And while you are chatting, ask them why they refuse to remove the scams that are present every day, and sometimes multiple times per day? I would remind everyone that there are many talented, highly-skilled freelancers who have offered their skills for free, to eliminate a majority of the scams in the job feed, and have been rejected.

When we all know there are quick, easy, cheap filters that will eliminate the majority of the scams, and they are not implemented, there can be only one conclusion.

[#4]

Hi Nikola,

There is no protection from you guys. I did all that you said in this comment and even won my dispute but I have still not been paid 25 days later. Now I am supposed to go into arbitration. I should pay over $300 to get $45 does that make sense?

Honestly, if you were in our positions and was taken advantage of by this client you wouldn't be saying this.

And yes I know you are doing your job and saying what you are supposed to but it's not cool.

Take the client of Upwork. Surely all of our complaints mean something? Or does Upwork not care?

[#5]

I agree Farren, this project took forever to complete! and they are still promising me payment. I guess I wont be seeing my money. And I wasted my contacts.

[#6]

Thabisa,

**Edited for Community Guidelines** is a scam client who have wasted a lot of freelancers time getting them to do free work for AI training.

Don't do anymore work for them now or ever. If you check the Dec forum posts, you find many who were taken for a ride by this female who is part of a data collection agency.

[#7]

It's amazing to me how freelancers work with a client with such a terrible history. All you gotta do is look at their history and see that it's bad news. So many terrible ratings to and from freelancers.

[#8]

Molo Thabisa,

I am very sorry to read your story and can only thank you for your feedback, which prevented me from accepting a project with them. It isn't always easy to know in advance who you are dealing with thus definitely worth checking ratings for the client and get some form of transparency beforehand, be it in terms of the project's description and goal as well as payment terms. There is perhaps still hope: I would suggest you send a polite but firm correspondance to the client to stress your gripe. There are even instances where mentioning to a client who is blatlantly ignoring you that you are considering turning to Upwork's moderator and write a detailed review and complain to the upwork community can make them take you more seriously. Be that as it may, I would certainly keep some of the work you've done. It could become material for your new portfolio, or you could upload it to your website if you've got one (it's easy to create one for VO work) which would allow you to share it as a demo, etc.

I hope this turns out well for you in the end

Best regards
Manny

[#9]

Manny, 

Talking to these "clients" is a waste of time. These are scammers who try to get freelancers to pay money to release their "never there in the first place" fees.

Many have ended up paying money to them in the hope of getting their "agreed upon" fees. They ended up losing money they had saved up or borrowed from someone.

Anyone who asks you to communicate or work outside the platform without a contract in place here, is a scammer, and you need to run as fast as you can and in the opposite direction.

[#10]

Sure thing, Rekha, staying within Upwork's plateform and scope is the way to go!

[#11]

Molo Manny, 

True, enkosi for your advice. Will definitely check client's ratings first before working with them. I have accepted this one as my loss as the arbitration process is far too costly.

[#12]

The same thing happened to me. I did the work for this client on 21 December 2023. Payment was due on the same day and when 14 days had past I was told by the Upwork team to open a dispute, which I did. I actually won the dispute but the client refuses to pay. My work was not rejected but whenever the deadline for payment or the dispute came around, the client made some excuse to extend it. Saying even though she approves she needs her client to approve. Which was not part of the agreement!

Upwork agreed with me and made a "suggestion" for her to pay but said if she didn't pay they could not force her. What????? They literally have the power to give me the money owed in escrow but they choose not to. 

Upwork agrees I have done the work and there are no issues and I should be paid but says they can't force her to pay unless I go in to arbitration and pay them over $300 for arbitration. Come on! If I had $300 to spare on arbitration would I worry about getting $45 from this client?

It seems like Upwork does not choose to do anything about this client even though multiple freelancers have complained about her.

I guess freelancers are left to get taken advantage of by people like her and Upwork does not care. Had I known this I would have never accepted a milestone payment.

I work through long term contracts getting paid weekly and this is the first time I did a milestone project. NEVER AGAIN!

[#13]

Oh no! I am experiencing the same thing! This is terrible and the project took forever!!!

[#14]

I got scammed by these thieves as well. I wish I had made a reasearch first.